Lara Lee

Spring 2024 update: The silly season has begun and Sydney’s restaurants are the place to be. Whether you’re looking for your next date-night spot or want to celebrate someone special, you’ll find the best places to wine and dine in Sydney below. Here's our list of Time Out's best restaurants in Sydney right now, from hot newcomers to time-honoured institutions, curated by our expert, on-the-ground editors and food writers who eat and drink their way around Sydney, including Time Out's Food & Drink Editor, Avril Treasure. How did we narrow it down to the very best? When deciding, we considered fun, flavour, creativity, value for money – and 'wow' factor. So yes, of course, you’ll find a fine diner inside the Sydney Opera House here, but you’ll also find neighbourhood pasta, hole-in-the-wall Thai and venues right by the sea. Happy dining, Sydney. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, food & drink inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox. RECOMMENDED READ: Still hungry? Check out our guide to the best cheap eats in Sydney.

Leafy and buzzing Surry Hills might just be the neighbourhood with the very best of what this city has to offer in terms of eating and drinking. Whether it’s homestyle, hole-in-the-wall Korean or an all-out chef’s menu from a kitchen with nothing but open flames, each and every price point and palate is catered to on these streets, from the fringe of the city down to the bottom of Crown. Time Out Sydney's editors and critics, including Food & Drink Editor Avril Treasure, have chosen their favourite picks from the 2010 postcode (and the home of Time Out Sydney HQ!). Go forth and eat well.  Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, food & drink inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox. Feel like a drink? These are the best bars in Surry Hills. After a bargain? Check out Sydney’s best cheap eats

Warike isn’t just a dining experience, it’s a cultural one. I can hear the soft chatter of Spanish speakers when I enter. It’s an excellent sign when a restaurant is embraced by its own community. This one is filled with South Americans proudly tasting their heritage. Peru is expressed in every detail. Adorning the walls are traditional Quechuan woven textiles. Peruvian music pulses the room with a melodic, rhythmic beat. A colourful mural on the wall pays tribute to Inca warriors and ceviche, the country’s national dish. There’s a sense you’ve stumbled upon a best-kept secret at Warike. The word “warike” means a secret place to eat food in Quechua, the language spoken by ancient Incans and eight million people throughout the Andes today. It’s the only contemporary Peruvian restaurant in Sydney, with a different offering to Japanese-Peruvian restaurant Nikkei (and Warike's sister venue, Lima) or the more traditional La Hacienda in the CBD. We are greeted with warm smiles and a palpable excitement from wait staff and Peruvian owner Luis Guzmán, as if we are entering their very home. This may be owed to Warike’s beginnings as a supper club in Guzmán’s home at the end of lockdown in 2020. He first relocated to Sydney from Lima in 2010 and longed to eat Peruvian food again. When he couldn’t find it in Sydney, he recreated it himself. Now Peruvian Hector Chunga leads the kitchen. He brings influences from his time cooking at the Peruvian Embassy in Japan, and you can feel Peruvian

✍️ Time Out Sydney never writes starred restaurant and bar reviews from hosted experiences – Time Out covers restaurant and bar bills, and anonymously reviews, so that readers can trust our critique. Find out more, here. Found in the middle of the suits and skyscrapers of North Sydney is Rafi, a 300-seat restaurant and bar and a recent offering from Applejack Hospitality (also the Taphouse, Bopp and Tone, Forrester's). Orange umbrellas line the foliage-filled outdoor terrace, and an exquisite semi-alfresco glasshouse overflows with lush plants and patterned window frames. It’s a feast for the eyes, a rare sanctuary sprung from the beige urban surroundings.  The interiors, designed by Luchetti Krelle, echo Applejack's mantra to "look bar, act restaurant", exuding youthful energy. And while the acoustics make it hard to hear your guests during busy times, it certainly adds to the buzz. The menu is as inventive and vibrant as the interiors. Puffed pillows of their signature sourdough wholemeal pita are served to the tables around us. We’re eager to order and get in on the yeasty joy but we feel overwhelmed by choice. Our waitress is dutiful but a little ambivalent, so we refrain from asking for recommendations.  The menu is rooted in New South Wales’s coastal influences, co-designed by Applejack’s head of culinary Patrick Friesen (ex-Queen Chow Enmore and Ms G's) and Rafi executive chef Matias Cilloniz, who came recently from one of the World's 50 Best Restaurants – Central in P